I'm about to start development of fairly large java based desktop application. After looking at JIDE components and frameworks, it seems to be a good solution at a glance. I'd like to hear from those who used those products. How reliable are they? What's the learning curve? Pros and cons?
I've been using JIDE for 2,5 years now. As far as I'm concerned, it's the best Swing component library there is (as there aren't many). Some of the functionality can be replaced by other alternatives if you want to take a component from here and another from there but some seem to be unique. And of course it is easier to adopt one complete solution instead of separate components and frameworks. Though I should point out, that I've mainly used separate components from the library as well as the Docking framework, but not JDAF so I can't comment on that.
Quality has been good for the most parts although at some point it felt as every release introduced a new bug. But so does every Swing release, so can't really blame them. Response times and customer service in general has been good so you're not alone with your problems. They also seem willing to adapt their products for customers needs.
However, on some parts their operation seems a bit amateurish. For example, the last time I checked, their forum was still used as a bug database. They also have released a large number of new products, some of which seem to be stuck in the beta stage forever.
I'd recommend that you contact them about the deployment fee to get an idea of the total costs, evaluate the product and then consider the risks and costs of adopting JIDE compared to the risks and costs of other alternatives. Open source is not risk free either. Being stuck on a dead commercial product may be worse than being stuck on a dead open source product, but I wouldn't enjoy either.